The death Tuesday of author John Updike brought forth memories, for some, of his sportswriting. His New Yorker article, titled "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu," is perhaps his most renowned work in that category.

The story was about Updike going to Fenway Park in 1960 and witnessing the final at-bat of Ted Williams' career, which ended with a home run. Here is an excerpt:

"Like a feather caught in a vortex, Williams ran around the square of bases at the center of our beseeching screaming. He ran as he always ran out home runs - hurriedly, unsmiling, head down, as if our praise were a storm of rain to get out of. He didn't tip his cap. Though we thumped, wept, and chanted 'We want Ted' for minutes after he hid in the dugout, he did not come back. Our noise for some seconds passed beyond excitement into a kind of immense open anguish, a wailing, a cry to be saved. But immortality is nontransferable. The papers said that the other players, and even the umpires on the field, begged him to come out and acknowledge us in some way, but he refused. Gods do not answer letters."

The full story is owned by Alfred A. Knopf Publishing. You can read it online at baseballalmanac.comand boston.com, among other sites.